BA return to T3? Plus a mini-trip report from Tuesday BCN-LHR

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Jun 30, 2020, 3:34 am

#46

TedToToe

Join Date: Jun 2016

Location: London

Programs: BAEC Gold

Posts: 2,213

Quote:

Originally Posted by Confus

There’s already a plan for this. The thing is, it doesn’t actually create any new stands, just allows remote ones to have jetties attached. And that costs (a lot of) money, at a time when neither BA nor HAL has any. So unlikely to be expedited I’d say.

Quote:

Originally Posted by BAeuro

Exactly this. There’s no point extending the terminal just to give a few stands jetbridges when there’s no net gain of gates.

No net gain in stands, that’s true, but aren’t non contact ‘B’ and ‘C’ gates mostly bussed from A10? This means that, at any point in time, ‘C’ gates could soak up more passengers than at present and the overall capacity (passengers per hour) would increase. No increase in stands but an increase in gates and waiting areas.

Last edited by TedToToe; Jun 30, 2020 at 4:08 am

Jun 30, 2020, 5:40 am

#47

alex67500

Join Date: Apr 2012

Location: LON

Programs: Mucci, BAEC, Eurostar

Posts: 3,276

Quote:

Originally Posted by lost_in_translation

It would basically be HAL sticking two fingers up at VS/DL and EK, surely two of HAL’s five biggest customers who both put a lot of emphasis on their premium ground products. There would be a sizeable compensation bill for HAL to pay too, no? It would almost be inviting EK to move services to LGW (and potentially even to STN).

HAL are, like others, trying to save money, so running fewer terminals makes sense. Any contract will have a "Force Majeure"* clause, so I doubt there'd be much in terms of compensation bill. As for EK moving to Gatwick, they'd have to invest money there. It would be an emotional decision rather than a rational business one.

*Ironically, since you mentioned sticking up fingers, the "majeur" is also the middle one in French, and the 2 signs are possibly related but that's another story.

Jun 30, 2020, 6:21 am

#48

layz

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I could see airlines (particularly Virgin) arguing that the current situation is giving BA (and also the Star Alliance airlines that have their own lounges in T2) an unfair advantage as BA will be able to operate all their premium services (subject to government guidelines) whereas everything Virgin have invested in at LHR is in a currently closed terminal.

Jun 30, 2020, 12:25 pm

#49

aceman

Join Date: Apr 2006

Location: London

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Interesting report thanks! headed to BCN myself on friday, so should be interesting. I hear that I'm missing lounge openings by 1 day which is a shame, I would have liked to have seen how things are handled!

Dec 18, 2020, 5:37 am

#50

vintagepilot

Join Date: Mar 2017

Location: Lincolnshire, UK

Programs: BA GGL - maybe only briefly!

Posts: 1,378

Just had an email to say our expected T5 departure to Krakow next May will now be from T3. Don't know if this is just an automated summer schedule email thing or a glimmer of a reopening of T3?

Cant for the life of me find the old route/terminal changes thread

Dec 18, 2020, 6:24 am

#51

Seppy

Join Date: Oct 2011

Posts: 45

I've just had the same for Bologna in May.

Clearly both Bologna and Krakow were T5 routes prior to the consolidation - so some planning is going into this.

However I'm do wonder if Heathrow / BA will need to reopen T3 / T4 by summer 2021.